


Deep Water

by Princess of Geeks (Princess)



Category: Stargate SG-1
Genre: Episode related: SGA Season 3: The Return, Established Relationship, M/M, SG-1 post-canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-31
Updated: 2014-05-31
Packaged: 2018-01-27 16:28:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 434
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1717136
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Princess/pseuds/Princess%20of%20Geeks
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Daniel and Jack, on vacation. But Jack's not quite ready for the cold ocean.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Deep Water

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Antares](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Antares/gifts).



Daniel had gone on ahead, ahead and down, down, down, to check out some kind of stone slab, maybe leftover from construction, that seemed to attract schools of crayon-colored fish.

Jack let a few bubbles out of his snorkel and swept his arms in a big semicircle, poised to follow, but as the bubbles swooshed past his face, something in the back of his mind snapped.

Cold water. Cold water, and not enough air, and time running out, and the levers were all the same and it was a deadman switch....

The next thing he knew he was gasping at the surface, tasting salt, trying not to retch. He realized he was kicking way too hard, given that he had flippers on. At Atlantis, in the dark at the sea bottom, he'd been barefoot.

He couldn't get a deep breath, but he was able to stop kicking, and stay where he was with just a flick or two of his flippers. He tore off his fast-fogging mask and the snorkel along with it, then wiped his face.

Shit, he thought.

There was hardly any swell today. The breeze was cool, the sun hot, the Caribbean pleasantly chilly.

He quit kicking altogether and lay on his back, trying to get his shit together.

He heard a splash nearby, and Daniel said, "Jack?"

Jack didn't turn to look. He kept looking at the clouds, and reached out his hand. Daniel took it.

"This might have been a mistake," Jack said.

"What?" Daniel seemed sincerely confused.

"Come on back to the hotel deck," Jack said. "I can't talk right now."

And he took off, swimming on the surface, needing to see. It would be faster to go underwater, but he just wasn't going to do that. Not right now. Not yet.

He hated getting blindsided like that. Hated it. He should have known better. But the old brain pan had suffered perhaps one too many hard knocks in the last few years. Maybe he should retire after all.

He pulled himself up the ladder and dumped the snorkel gear, Daniel right behind him.

"Let's get a beer and sit in the shade for a minute," Jack said, gesturing, like an umpire would signal an out.

"Are you all right?" Daniel said. Jack shook his head and kept walking. In a minute he could tell Daniel. In a minute they could talk it all over. In a minute. Just as soon as he could get his mind back on the Mexican sky, the taste of Modela. And not alien salt water colder than a tomb. In a minute.


End file.
